The D6 is the newest member of Audix’s D series of microphones, which are intended mainly for use on drums and percussion. A large-format dynamic with a cardioid polar pattern, the D6 is designed for mic’ing kick drum and bass, design goals which place it in roughly the same league as the AKG D 112, Electro-Voice RE20, Sennheiser MD 421, Shure Beta 52 and the Audio-Technica ATM25. Compared to these well-established mics, the D6 proved itself to possess a very distinctive character from the get-go: this is one rock ‘n’ roll microphone!

Mic’ing kick drums both inside the drum and at the hole resulted in lots of low-end and a loud attack, but no midrange — very aggressive, and close to a typical metal/hardcore kick drum sound. Rack and floor toms came out much the same, with well-defined lows coupled with a prominent stick sound even when the mic was pointed towards the edge of the drum head.

Close mic’ing bass cabinets yielded tons of low-end with only the slightest hint of boominess, but the lack of midrange was less of an asset here as the sound lacked definition — pairing with another mic would be necessary to achieve a well-rounded bass tone.

Upon looking at a graph of the on-axis frequency response, it becomes apparent why the D6 sounds the way it does: as the low-end peaks at 60 Hz, the high-end peaks at 4 kHz and 10 kHz — and the midrange at 750 Hz is down about 15 dB below the peaks.

All told, while the D6 is definitely not a general-purpose drum microphone, it shouldn’t be judged as one. This is a mic that will give a specific sound and character and is excellent at doing so. Engineers who often find themselves scooping lots of midrange out of bass or drums would do well to give the D6 a listen.